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Man rescued from Dallas power pole | Latest News | WFAA.com — This bloke will eventually win a Darwin Award. Not this time.
Dallas police and firefighters had to rescue a man who suffered electrical burns on top of a utility pole early Friday morning. The man, identified by police as James Buster McKay, 52, was reportedly trying to steal valuable copper cables from the live electric lines.
Dallas Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Sherrie Lopez said McKay had been jolted with about 7,000 volts, possibly twice.
“We were going to have a surgical team on site because he was adhered to the metal surfaces on top of that pole,” she said. “Much of his clothing had either “burned off or blown off,” she said.
Found by Gregory Schultz.
I honestly wish that would happen to more metal theft scum (except maybe a few more zaps to finish them off).
Harsh, I know, but here in my (large west coast) city there are so many tweaker thieving scum, I think they need to be ‘culled’ back some as they are overpopulating.
Either that or maybe a yearly hunting season? 😉
This happens all the time now. I don’t think he will be trying this anytime soon.
I guess his buddies will call him blackballs now.
In DFW, this is an addition to a long list of bozos that try copper theft. One man who came back for “thirds” was shot on the roof of a business and again while trying to escape. No charges filed against the owner.
Another thief was “detained” by guard dogs on the roof of a church.
Two others destroyed their pickup truck drive train trying to pull down huge light poles on Interstate 35. Tried to run, caught a day later. D-Uh, license plates? Har!
Seems like this is a recurring theme here.
Adding to BubbaRay’s comment,
I have a client in a bad neighborhood (different bad neighborhood from the story) in Dallas where the thieves climbed over razor and barbed wire to get on the roof of their building to steal the copper from the air conditioning units. The really bad part was it was their data center! Took almost a week to recover from the overheated servers…
They should have left him on the pole as a warning to others.
This was just a few blocks away from my work. Yesterday, the lights in my office were flickering. It’s probably a coincidence, but I have to wonder.
Copper thieves are only part of the problem. Why aren’t the reclaimers / recyclers who buy the copper just as culpable?
Why didn’t they taser him?
[Didn’t need to… he tasered himself. Har. – ed.]
#9, chuck,
He might try to steal the copper from their tazers.
#1;
My city has discovered that requiring photo ID and a fingerprint for people attempting to sell off salvaged metal has been very effective at cutting down on metal thefts.
Texas. Say no more.
truly amazing that he has survived 50+ years with his intellect. i learned my lesson as a 5 year by pulling a light plug partially out and touching it.
also saw a story on cable news about two idiots who pulled down a light pole for salvage. the cops caught them after spotting the 35 ft pole tied to the top of their van. the picture was laugh riot.
So we get to pay of this guys medical bill, right?
In my neighborhood it’s usually just squirrels who are dumb enough to do this. And not that many of them.
Just checked an update to the story, and now he is an official entrant for the Darwin Awards.